SMR-300 deployments, power plant names, trade missions, agreements between neighboring countries, and renewed interest in nuclear energy are among the notable developments that occurred internationally in the month of May.

The American Nuclear Society’s Risk-informed, Performance-based Principles and Policy Committee (RP3C) held another presentation in its monthly Community of Practice (CoP) series. Former RP3C chair N. Prasad Kadambi opened the April 24 meeting with brief introductory remarks about the RP3C and the overall importance of risk-informed, performance-based (RIPB) design principles.

Nuclear medicine has come a long way since Henri Becquerel first observed the penetrating energy of radioactive materials in 1896. Today, technetium-99m alone is used in more than 40 million diagnostic procedures every year—from cardiovascular imaging and bone scans to cancer detection—making it the undisputed workhorse of nuclear medicine. That single statistic tells you something important: An enormous portion of modern diagnostic medicine rests on a surprisingly narrow foundation, one built around a small number of aging research reactors that were never originally designed for continuous isotope production.

On Tuesday, the National Reactor Innovation Center hosted an industry day for the Nuclear Energy Launch Pad, providing a forum for companies to learn more about how the program works, timelines, collaboration with the various entities involved, and available resources.

The launch pad is a long-term program stemming from the Reactor Pilot Program and Fuel Line Pilot Program. It aims to fast-track regulatory processes for new reactors and fuel facilities that meet certain milestones.

This Saturday, May 23, will mark one year since President Trump issued four executive orders (EOs) that sought to implement sweeping changes across the U.S. nuclear industry. From regulatory reform at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to new authorization projects at the Departments of Energy and Defense, the orders sent ripples throughout the industry.

A report by the Government Accountability Office has shown that the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management continues to face significant staffing shortages since the GAO first reported on the problem in 2024. This includes a shortage in workers considered critical to carrying out the office’s mission of cleaning up radioactive waste from decades of nuclear weapons production and research.

PNNL’s Jamin Trevino works with a capsule containing Ra-226. (Photo: Jamin Trevino/PNNL)

A collaboration between the Department of Energy’s Office of Isotope R&D and Production and the Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology has recovered large quantities of radium-226—valued for its use in medical radioisotope production—from radiological waste stored at NIST facilities. Ra-226 is an important element in developing therapies for patients fighting cancer.

Earlier this week, Idaho National Laboratory announced that its Structural Properties Laboratory (SPL) has been fully operational since January. Located at INL’s Materials and Fuels Complex, the SPL houses the lab’s first new hot cell in 50 years.

Of the many and varied uses of nuclear science and technology, few may be aware of its applications in the detection of food adulteration. Also known as food fraud, food adulteration is the intentional altering of food products through dilution, substitution, mislabeling, or other fraudulent actions for financial gain.

Oak Ridge Associated Universities (ORAU) hosted the Pathways to Trade Summit on Thursday, May 14, at the organization’s Pollard Center in Oak Ridge, Tenn. The focus of the gathering was the building of a skilled nuclear workforce capable of meeting the current and future challenges of unprecedented industry growth. Along with ORAU, the event was cosponsored by North America’s Building Trades Unions and the Tennessee Nuclear Network.

Proposed nuclear energy legislation with bipartisan support earned the attention of the U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Wednesday morning.

Subject-matter experts and the chief sponsors of the legislation shared details on three items at a hearing Wednesday before the EPW Subcommittee on Clean Air, Climate, and Nuclear Innovation and Safety: the Build Nuclear with Local Materials Act—introduced just last week—and discussion drafts of the Revitalizing Energy Communities by Hosting Advanced Reactors and Generating Energy (RECHARGE) Act and Enrichment Licensing Modernization Act.

The Supreme Court of the United States on Monday declined to hear an appeal from General Atomics subsidiary Cotter Corporation and Commonwealth Edison, an Exelon company, in a case over alleged radioactive contamination in the St. Louis, Mo., area, leaving in place an 8th Circuit Court ruling that allows the plaintiffs’ state-law tort claims to proceed under the federal Price-Anderson Act.

The Canadian Medical Isotope Ecosystem, which is backed by the Canadian federal government’s Strategic Innovation Fund, has announced funding for a collaboration between Promation, Astral Systems, and McMaster University to establish a proof-of-concept approach for a fusion reaction–based copper-67 production process with automated postirradiation isotope separation and purification.

Sweden-based advanced reactor developer Blykalla has applied to build a site in its home country that would feature six lead-cooled small modular reactors. The 330-MWe facility would house a half-dozen 55-MWe Sealer reactors, which the company said are designed for hyperscalers and energy-intensive industries.

At the end of April, TerraPower announced that it had officially begun construction on its Natrium power plant in Kemmerer, Wyo.—one of the two full-scale demonstration projects in the Department of Energy’s Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program.

Now, the second ARDP-backed demonstration project, which aims to see the deployment of X-energy’s Xe-100 at a Dow chemical facility, has reached a new milestone of its own. On May 18, X-energy announced that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has completed its environmental assessment of the proposed Long Mott Generating Facility and issued a finding of no significant impact (FONSI).

In response to Executive Order 14300, “Ordering the Reform of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission,” the NRC is proposing sweeping changes to its rules governing the use of nuclear materials that are widely used in industry, medicine, and research. The changes would amend NRC regulations for the licensing of nuclear byproduct material, some source material, and some special nuclear material.

As published in the May 18 Federal Register, the NRC is seeking public comment on this proposed rule and draft interim guidance until July 2.

The Maine Maritime Academy (MMA) is set to become the first maritime academy in the United States to offer a major in nuclear engineering technology. The college characterized it as “an important step in addressing workforce needs and advancing clean energy solutions” in a LinkedIn post announcing the major.

Oak Ridge National Laboratory announced the completion of a set of experiments measuring the viscosity and thermal conductivity of several uranium-bearing molten salts, filling in gaps that could help with the development of molten salt reactors.

The noticeable exuberance within the nuclear community as a whole appears to have spilled over into the waste management sphere as well, judging from the 2026 Waste Management Conference, held March 8–12 in Phoenix, Ariz., and sponsored by Waste Management Symposia.

The theme of this year’s conference was “Efficient and Innovative Nuclear Materials and Technology Solutions,” and many of the scheduled panels and technical sessions revolved around how nuclear growth and technological advancements are affecting the back end of the fuel cycle, as well as how the cleanup of legacy sites is enabling new nuclear development.

NextEra Energy is set to acquire Dominion Energy, the two utilities announced earlier today in an approximately $67 billion merger that will alter the energy landscape—including for nuclear power—in the United States.